Got the beta on PS4 and had an obscenely fun time in the free mode. It had the smoothness of absolution, but most of the freedom of Blood Money. To echo someone else, it feels like Blood Money 2. There were some janky animations and hilarious rag doll moments, but that just reminded me of BM; I loved it. I'm cautious, but pretty excited for missions to start being released.

Got the beta on PS4 and had an obscenely fun time in the free mode. It had the smoothness of absolution, but most of the freedom of Blood Money. To echo someone else, it feels like Blood Money 2. There were some janky animations and hilarious rag doll moments, but that just reminded me of BM; I loved it. I'm cautious, but pretty excited for missions to start being released.

I second that whole heartedly. It was so much fun to have a number of ways to tackle such a simple task. Really enjoyed it.
And also, this happened while I was recording my impressions video on PS4 (see attached image). The only time that it happened in about 3-4 hours that I spent with the game. Shows that this game is in beta. Hopefully the framerate issues will be resolved upon release.
And hopefully the episodic nature of the release will be justified story-wise too.

I've pretty much exhausted the training levels. But I've had lots of fun, took me a good few hours to do all the challenges.

Hasn't really convinced me on the episodic model, I do feel it would be a lot better to get the whole game at once, but it has convinced me the game itself is going to be great. The 'beta' would make a good demo to convince people who are on the fence about buying this, except you need to have bought the game already to play it...

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Stealth assassination game Alekhine's Gun has been delayed to March, publisher Maximum Games has confirmed. The game had previously been due to launch this week.

The game will now hit worldwide on Steam and North America on PS4 and Xbox One on March 1, with a European console release to follow "very shortly after".

UK retailers currently pin the console version down for March 11 - the same day Square Enix's Hitman is due to launch digitally across the globe.

Set during the Cold War, Alekhine's Gun tasks players with assassinating targets as sneakily as possible through Europe, America and Cuba, and is clearly inspired by some of the earlier games in the Hitman franchise. You can see what it looks like in the developer's latest Let's Play video below

The music in Absolution was dynamic. Basically loops, stems and stingers that played depending on what was happening. If you were a stealthy fellow it wasn't all that interesting. It's one of the examples of how they just went too far with the whole cinematic/Hollywood approach.

If the music in the new game is like the E3 trailer I am looking forward to hearing more of it.

So an IO Rep just posted about what the live component elements of the game are going to be. Sounds awesome:

Elusive Targets

The Contracts that are available for a limited-time are what we call Elusive Targets. An Elusive Target is the closest thing to the Hitman fantasy that we've ever created. These targets will be custom-created characters that are added to existing locations and are only there for a limited time in real-time. You'll only have one chance to take them down. If they escape, they are gone for good. If you kill them, that's the way that you killed them. There are no do-overs and no second chances. When an Elusive Target leaves the game world (one way or another) they never return.

Each Elusive Target will have a custom briefing video, a backstory and a unique reason for being in that location. When you're actually playing in the location, the Elusive Target will not appear on the map and will not appear in Instinct. In order to find them, you'll need to use clues from the briefing video and a photograph that you will be able to review. You'll need to explore, find your target, learn their patterns and come up with a plan to eliminate them - all whilst playing. The pressure will be on when you've got the target in your sights. If you miss the shot and chaos breaks loose, you will need to have a plan B, because the save-game is disabled during an Elusive Target. If you kill the wrong person or die when trying to exfiltrate, that's it. Game over, the target escapes.

As the season unfolds, you’ll earn in-game rewards for completing multiple Elusive Target contracts. The rewards are signature suits from previous Hitman games and versions of those suits with gloves. There’s also a version of the signature suit from the new HITMAN with gloves.

We know that Elusive Targets are not going to be easy, they were designed that way.

Escalation Mode

Escalation Mode is something else completely new for HITMAN and was created as a way to regularly provide a fresh challenge to players. You'll need to master the location as well as the gameplay mechanics to complete a hit that will escalate in difficulty by adding new elements. As an example, the first stage could be to eliminate your target with a sabre. Then, the second stage could be to eliminate your target with a sabre whilst dressed as a waiter and removing any security camera recordings within two minutes. We are able to change where the security cameras are and also add additional ‘security’ measures to the locations, such as laser trip-wire explosives that you’ll need to avoid.

Escalation Mode has a strong focus on having fun with the game mechanics and mixing them up – pretty much anything goes in this mode. It’s more about being playful than realistic. For each Escalation Contract, there are five stages and you're free to replay them as you wish to climb the leaderboards. As with Elusive Targets, the save-game functions are disabled.

All Escalation contracts and Elusive Targets are created by IOI and will be released between the location releases as part of the live content.

Contracts Mode

On top of those new features, we also have Contracts Mode. You'll know this from Absolution. Play-to-create, mark your own targets, choose how to kill them and compete against your friends. IOI will also pick the best of the bunch and put them in the Featured Contracts list so you've got something fresh to play whenever you load up the game.

Live Challenges

Additionally, we have the ambition of adding community-inspired challenges into the game. As you'll have seen from the recent Beta period, the game is full of challenges you can complete to prove your mastery of a location. We are looking into creating new challenges that we can periodically add to the game. These challenges will be an homage to some of the more elaborate, amusing, difficult or creative feats that we see our players complete. As an example, one of the first ‘live challenges’ we are looking at creating is called “Hammer Time” and was inspired by a ‘2AngryGamers’ livestream of our PS4 Beta, where they used only a hammer to knock out almost every guard in the ‘Final Test’.

At this stage, Community-inspired challenges (or whatever we actually decide to name them) are just one of the ideas we are working on to keep the game fresh and live as we go through the season. These are not a guaranteed feature but something we’re testing and trying out.

All of those things are part of the live component of HITMAN. We'll be watching and listening to what you do in our game world and want to shape that world to what you've already done in it.

That sounds really awesome except I remember saying the same about Guild Wars 2's missable events but then when I wasn't at the level cap in a month and missed a few I thought it was less awesome. Missable content is actually not-good.

BUT! Maybe these targets will occasionally resurface or if they don't the various unlocks cycle.

Too bad the soundtrack will probably suck when compared to Codename 47 or Contracts. Still, I'm willing to give this new guy a chance.

I mean, Absolution's score wasn't bad, it's just largely forgettable due to it mostly being stings that are too short to have any sort of melody or flow. If they set up the music cues more like Blood Money, the composer might actually be able to do something with it. And hey, maybe with the lack of a horribly misdirected story, the composer won't be trying to play up hammy ~dark emotional strings~, so that's something.

Kyd's obviously the master, but as has been pointed out several times ITT, he's evidently too expensive/too busy to return. Honestly, I wouldn't even mind them reusing/referencing some of his old tracks, but I realize this is probably a licensing mess unto itself.

Something else nobody's really pointed out: People were really worried about 47's appearance in the initial gameplay trailer, which made him look borderline-Olyphant-47, but it looks like his appearance is pretty on-point in the beta. I wonder if it was similar to the Absolution Bateson situation, or if it's just something to do with a mission we haven't seen yet.

either way imo they should have gone all the way and just made him look like Codename 47's legit scary boxart render.

All of IO's weirdness will be forgiven if I can dress 47 in an unlockable tight leather nun outfit

Something else nobody's really pointed out: People were really worried about 47's appearance in the initial gameplay trailer, which made him look borderline-Olyphant-47, but it looks like his appearance is pretty on-point in the beta. I wonder if it was similar to the Absolution Bateson situation, or if it's just something to do with a mission we haven't seen yet.

either way imo they should have gone all the way and just made him look like Codename 47's legit scary boxart render.

he is younger looking in the beta(its his first training op) but he looks normal aged in the main game. i love that bateson is still the voice.

Yeah I think after the controversy surrounding Bateson being replaced during Absolution and IO only buckled and brought him back to voice 47 after fan complaints, they aren't going to be dumb enough to do the same thing a second time.

I can't even imagine playing a Hitman game first-person. Many of the mechanics of it wouldn't work very well since the game was designed for third person. But unfortunately I don't have an answer to your question.

Hitman beta is preloading, hooray! Thanks again barren_sky, I'll have a lot of fun with this tomorrow.

I am so psyched about this game. I've played the beta levels at least a dozen times each now and it's like a significantly improved Blood Money. Plus all the stuff they're adding like the elusive targets?

Kyd's obviously the master, but as has been pointed out several times ITT, he's evidently too expensive/too busy to return. Honestly, I wouldn't even mind them reusing/referencing some of his old tracks, but I realize this is probably a licensing mess unto itself.

Let's get the story straight on this, because the claim that his price is too high or he's too busy is bullshit speculation. Kyd wasn't even approached for Absolution.

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When asked if he would be providing the score for the upcoming Hitman: Absolution, Jesper simply replied with...”No, I wasn’t approached to score Absolution.”

We have no idea if he was approached for Hitman 6 but I doubt it. When asked about it back in 2014, all he said was that he wouldn't be doing the new Hitman. He was busy at the time (working on 4 games) but that wasn't the reason he gave for not doing the soundtrack. Don't blame Kyd for being picky when IOI's stupidity is a better target.

I am so psyched about this game. I've played the beta levels at least a dozen times each now and it's like a significantly improved Blood Money. Plus all the stuff they're adding like the elusive targets?

the one thing that bothers me is how many shots people take to die. i understand the player being fragile (its a stealth game) but you pretty much have to get a heart shot or a head shot for an insta kill any guard or random person.

Let's get the story straight on this, because the claim that his price is too high or he's too busy is bullshit speculation. Kyd wasn't even approached for Absolution.

We have no idea if he was approached for Hitman 6 but I doubt it. When asked about it back in 2014, all he said was that he wouldn't be doing the new Hitman. He was busy at the time (working on 4 games) but that wasn't the reason he gave for not doing the soundtrack. Don't blame Kyd for being picky when IOI's stupidity is a better target.

It's not far fetched considering the fit the fanbase threw when Bateman was dumped. IOI doesn't seem to know what things to keep a death grip on.

the one thing that bothers me is how many shots people take to die. i understand the player being fragile (its a stealth game) but you pretty much have to get a heart shot or a head shot for an insta kill any guard or random person.

So it's fairly accurate to real life? 1-3 shots to the vitals/chest drops anyone without a vest, what more do you want?

Also I've been playing around with the AI and they're pretty deadly when they want to be. I was taking out the 3 guards at the start of the boat level and I missed my headshot on the guard in the doorway. He wrecked my poo poo with his first magazine, I don't think he missed once. Also guards will headshot you if they're close, and it's an instant kill. There might be some hidden degrees to how hostile they get as you repeatedly terrorize them. I'm not 100% sure yet.

It's actually not that bad. It's a lot easier to run and shoot, aim carefully and made it a bit more tense with that you wouldn't have to use the third person camera for corners and keep an eye on incoming guards.